A wretch in Barbadoes had chained a Negro girl to the floor, and flogged her till she was nearly expiring.

Captain Cook and Major Fitch, hearing her cries, broke open the door and found her.

The wretch retreated from their resentment, but cried out exultingly, "that he had only given her thirty-nine lashes (the number limited by law) at any one time; and that he had only inflicted this number three times since the beginning of the night," adding, "that he would prosecute them for breaking open his door; and that he would flog her to death for all any one, if he pleased; and that he would give her the fourth thirty-nine before morning." But this plan of regulation was not only inefficacious, but unsafe.

He entered his protest against the fatal consequences, which might result from it.

The Negros were creatures like ourselves; but they were uninformed, and their moral character was debased.